Ani­ta –as her friends call her- stu­died tou­rism and mar­ke­ting. She ser­ved an 11-year stint in the Hertz af­fi­lia­te at the To­cu­men Air­port whe­re she first got in touch with the hos­pi­ta­lity in­dustry be­fo­re spen­ding seven mo­re years at Do­llar Rent a Car. Any con­ver­sa­tion with her on the fu­tu­re of her country’s tra­vel in­dustry is al­ways an in­ter­es­ting ex­pe­rien­ce. Her views are mar­ked by her longs­tan­ding te­nu­re at the helm of APOTUR and her tea­ching ex­pe­rien­ce at the In­ter American Tou­rism Ins­ti­tu­te.

She speaks En­glish, a little bit of Ita­lian and French, and is con­vin­ced that Pa­na­ma’s tou­rism re­qui­res mo­re tech­ni­cians and poly­glots than ma­na­gers. She now runs her own pri­va­te tou­rist company –Ex­pe­rien­ce Pa­na­ma- that star­ted up back in 1997. Ex­ce­len­cias brings to its readers the opi­nions of this exe­cu­ti­ve who ne­ver gi­ves in when it co­mes to se­lling dreams.

How does the Pa­na­ma Tour Ope­ra­tor As­so­cia­tion see the pers­pec­ti­ves of the tra­vel mar­ket in light of the new tou­rism act?

They look great now be­cau­se the for­mer act was ob­so­le­te. The­re was a need to up­gra­de and up­da­te that act with so­me new ele­ments and chan­ge ot­hers, li­ke the tour ope­ra­tors’ trans­por­ta­tion. Now each tour ope­ra­tor could use any trans­por­ta­tion means of its choi­ce, ba­sed on its own needs or in­ter­ests, and wit­hout ha­ving to de­pend on the dea­lers.

What new goals do the Pa­na­ma­nian tour ope­ra­tors in­tend to meet this year in a bid to strengt­hen tou­rist arri­vals from Eu­ro­pe?

We in­tend to step up the pro­mo­tion of des­ti­na­tion Pa­na­ma and as part of the Cen­tral Ame­ri­ca mul­ti-des­ti­na­tion ef­forts. Now with in­crea­sed air­lift from Eu­ro­pe, we ho­pe to reach out to ot­her Eu­ro­pean mar­kets with the help of the Pa­na­ma Tou­rism Ins­ti­tu­te (IPAT), reach out to coun­tries whe­re we used to ha­ve no pre­sen­ce at all, li­ke the Nor­dic na­tions, and IPAT is trying to open mar­kets the­re.

Ani­ta Royo is qui­te a cheer­ful tal­ker who feels pas­sion for the beau­ties, traditions and his­tory her country has to of­fer. The­se vir­tues let her ha­ve a bet­ter un­ders­tan­ding and pro­jec­tion of her po­si­tion as pre­si­dent of the Pa­na­ma Tou­rism Tour Ope­ra­tor As­so­cia­tion (APOTUR is the Spa­nish acronym) and as a mem­ber of the CAMTUR Board of Di­rec­tors.

How can you stack up the Pa­na­ma­nian mar­ket this ti­me around against last year’s re­sults in terms of tra­vel ope­ra­tions?

The Pa­na­ma­nian mar­ket is be­co­ming mo­re awa­re and mo­re ma­tu­red in terms of tou­rism growth. We’re seeing mo­re vi­si­tors wal­king down the streets, vi­si­ting land­marks, bea­ches and res­tau­rants. We’re wa­king up to a new reality and far mo­re tou­rists are floc­king in. We don’t see scar­city of vi­si­tors in the tou­rist fa­ci­li­ties across the country any­mo­re.

2007 was a good year, es­pe­cially for the ho­tel sec­tor. So many in­ves­tors came in that we didn’t ha­ve an off-peak sea­son. Ho­we­ver, our tour ope­ra­tors are doing a who­le lot bet­ter this year be­cau­se the­re are far mo­re tou­rists, mo­re re­quests from the who­le­sa­lers, and tra­vel agen­cies are be­gin­ning to ma­ke a na­me for them­sel­ves in Pa­na­ma.

What main ac­tions is the Pa­na­ma Tour Ope­ra­tor As­so­cia­tion con­duc­ting this year?

We’re bee­fing up our as­so­cia­tion. We’re loo­king for new stra­te­gic allian­ces to co­me up with our own of­fi­ces and with an exe­cu­ti­ve di­rec­tor. We’ll keep on wor­king with the Tou­rism Cham­ber and IPAT in la­ying out the gui­de­li­nes of the new tou­rism act and in the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the Master Plan.